We are almost to the 17-year mark of Travis' accident, February 12th, 2025. Here is a small part of the story up to now. The first picture was when Travis and Ryan went to Colorado to look for Ryan's apartment. This picture would soon have more meaning than we would ever know. The "mountains' that were ahead of us. The 'mountains of God".

Told from the perspective of Kim Burkhart.

It was the weekend of Feb 10th, 2008, and our daughter Jenae was turning 17. Our older son, Ryan was home from Denver. We had all gone to church that Sunday morning. I was so happy to have all my children together in church and I was looking forward to a wonderful day with my kids celebrating Jenae’s 17th birthday. At the end of the church services, we were to travel to Evansville to eat for Jenae’s birthday. Certain events kept Travis from being with the family celebrating his sister’s birthday and heading back to school in Evansville to the University of Southern Indiana. On Monday, Ryan decided he needed to head back to Denver to take care of some business. I asked him not to go, something was telling me he shouldn’t leave. We never dreamed we would have to call and tell him he needed to get back quickly for his brother Travis. On Monday, the weather turned really bad. It began to snow, freezing rain was a threat and the temps were falling. So his return to school was postponed until Tuesday morning Feb 12, 2008. This ordinary Tuesday would quickly change Travis' life forever. In fact, it would change all of our lives forever.

I was at work when Travis called to tell me he was heading back to Evansville around 11:30 a.m. I asked him not to go but he said: " Mom I'll be okay I'm 22 years old and this paper has to be turned in today". Thirty minutes later I got the call. It was Mike, Travis' dad. He was on his way to the Farm Show in Louisville with a group of men. He said, "Kimberly, Travis has been in a wreck, and it doesn’t look good". Sheriff Steve Cox had called for the state police to pick Mike up in Ferdinand and took him to Jasper where Steve would take Mike on from there. Former Sheriff Jerry Harbstriet came to Odon to pick me up. He first took me to Daviess Community Hospital and then on to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. Words cannot begin to describe my feelings, fear, sadness, anxiousness, and complete devastation. How could this happen? Did he have internal injuries or broken bones? Whatever it was we could fix it. But this journey wouldn’t be that easy. He had lost control in the freezing rain. He spun around, hit a truck, and then spun around again and hit the ditch. Many rumors started flying around about which Burkhart boy had been in the wreck. Soon everyone learned it was Travis. So many of the people that worked the wreck, and the ER were close personal friends of ours. None of them thought he would survive, and they were deeply affected by this horrible tragedy. One of my lifelong friends, Tammy, was one of the paramedics who were on the scene first. She and Sara another paramedic, stayed with Travis the entire time telling him how mad his mom would be if she let anything happen to him. I truly believe that all the familiar voices yelling his name and talking to him kept him here with us. Their love, care, and personal interest were the driving force behind getting him to where he is today. Travis would later tell us an incredible story that someday he will tell everyone else. My brother, Bobby, was the first to get to the hospital to be with Travis and then soon after him, several other family members began to arrive. By the time the police got me to Daviess Community Hospital, Travis was already in transport to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville by ambulance. They had wanted to transport him by helicopter to Indianapolis, but the weather conditions had made it impossible. Sheriff Steve Cox had met Mike in Jasper where a state police officer was waiting with Mike and took him on to Evansville where all of our family eventually met to be with Travis.

The first time we saw Travis he was being brought off the elevator. There laid our son. He looked perfect like he could just sit up and talk to us. Travis is 6'2" and 212 lbs. He was lifting weights 4-5 times a week for 2-3 hours at a time. He was in the strongest and best shape he had ever been in. How would we have ever known that God was preparing him for the fight of his life. The neurosurgeon soon called us into a very tiny room to update us on Travis' condition. He told us that he had suffered a severe closed head injury and a fracture of the C-2 in his neck. He told us he probably would not survive through the night and if he did, he would spend the rest of his life in a nursing home. Travis’ mom began to cry, and the neurosurgeon abruptly told her he didn’t have time for a crying mom and to suck it up. That was the beginning of many unprofessional encounters with this man. We refused to believe either of the choices we were given. Travis would live and he would come home. Within 3 days of being in the ICU, he had surgery to put him in a trach, IVC filter and feeding tube to help him recover and gain strength. There were times when there were so many people (over the 2 weeks he was in ICU) with us they actually wanted to move us to a larger room. While in ICU Travis began “rolling his wrists”. This is a habit he had because of the weightlifting, his wrist would feel tight from all the strain of working out. I was so excited to see him doing that and I quickly pointed it out to a nurse. She politely told me it was only spasms, but I knew better. We would constantly talk to him and tell him the events of the day and everyone that had come to see him. My sister-in-law Ruthanne and I constantly rubbed his feet and hands to help relax him and let him know we were there with him. The hospital gave us a room where Mike, Evan, Jenae, and I slept so we could be close by. Mike and I went down to the ICU every two hours thru the night and were with him constantly during the day. He spent the first 2 weeks in ICU in a coma and then he was transferred to a Select Specialty hospital for the next 8 weeks to continue waking up. At Select, he showed signs of problem-solving, recognition, and many more cognitive skills.  I had prayed and prayed, the truth is I prayed nonstop, for some sign to let me know he was going to recover and be okay. I had asked God to give me that sign on Easter. On Easter, Sunday Mike and Jenae told Travis goodnight and went into the hallway. I told him goodnight and that I loved him and then said our prayer. As I turned to leave, not yet getting my prayer answered, I heard Travis say Mom, Mom, Mom. It stopped me in my steps. I turned to see him looking at me and calling my name. This was the first time he had spoken since the wreck. The tears poured like rain that night in praise and thankfulness for my answered prayer at just the perfect time. God’s timing is always perfect. After spending the last two months at Select Specialty Hospital he then moved on to HealthSouth rehab hospital where he spent 11 weeks. But shortly after arriving at the rehab he developed bacterial pneumonia. He was then transported back to Deaconess Hospital where he would stay for 2 weeks. He once again was fighting for his life. During the hospital stays he lost 65 pounds and was thinner and weaker than he had ever been in his life. He was then transferred back to Health South to begin his rehab. While at Health South certain issues caused his swallowing to become weak. One week he almost choked to death in front of me. Those are images that are burned in my mind forever and never want to see anyone experience such a traumatic event. Toward the end of his stay at HealthSouth rehab hospital, they let us bring him home on the weekends. I remember his face when he saw the house for the first time. It was like “Wow” I'm home. At that point, he had been away from home for 21 weeks. But then on his return to the rehab hospital, his feelings of joy became sadness. We were south of Petersburg and tears were streaming down his face. He was still unable to speak but his sadness was so evident, he didn’t need words. Then the day came to go home for good. So, on July 26th, 2008, Travis came home! From that date until the present, we have been in therapy in Evansville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. We are now 15 years into the toughest fight of Travis and our family’s lives. Travis continues to make progress in Speech, Physical, Occupational, Hippo therapy, and Hyperbaric Oxygen therapies. We have faith and hope that he will make a complete recovery. During the 6 months, Travis was in the hospital he always had me, Mike, a close family friend, or another family member with him, he was never alone. But that left my other two children at home alone. Evan and Jenae were in their junior and senior years in high school. They gave up a lot so that Mike and I could be with Travis, and I couldn’t have asked for better kids. They were so unselfish. Local police officers, teachers, friends, and family made sure everything was taken care of at home and that Evan and Jenae were safe and fed. I don’t know what we would have done without everyone’s help. It took a huge worry off our shoulders we had our hands full with getting Travis better so we could get home.

Six years down the road, Travis began complaining of back pain. So severe that he could not sleep or eat. He never complained so we knew something was incredibly wrong. After two trips to our local doctor, we discovered he had an IVC filter. During the shock of the accident and the condition, Travis was in we didn’t remember this procedure being done. We then went to a larger hospital. We sat in the emergency room for 8 hours. The ER doctor told us he had a blood clot. He was going to start him on Coumadin and send us home. Well, that was not going to happen. We asked to go to Indianapolis. The doctor said he didn’t care where we went. We asked that Travis’ ER record be sent to Indianapolis and off we went. When we arrived at the ER in Indy, they were waiting on us in the ER. The nurses asked us what took so long. They told us that Travis had the largest blood clot they had ever seen. It began up under his rib cage in the vena cava vein and extended down into both legs. It was cutting off circulation. We were faced with possible double-leg amputation. Just think if we would have gone home as the one doctor suggested. It would have been a tragic ending. While in the hospital in Indy he underwent an angioplasty surgery to physically remove as much of the blood clot as possible.

During his stay in the various hospitals and even when we came home several prayer groups came and prayed over Travis for his healing. Many times, during the most difficult times we would have encounters/phone calls from people we know and didn’t know. They would tell us of dreams/visions they had of Travis. We believe God was using them to reassure us He is always with us. Area churches sent money and put Travis on their prayer lists, some still have him on there to this day. So many friends and family brought us food and money, the outpouring of love for us was incredible. We even had a man from our area who lives in Newburgh, Dave, who would come every Sunday and give us our own private church service and communion while we were at Select and HealthSouth. A close friend of mine, Michele, took care of Travis’ dog and even brought him down to see Travis. Bruiser, Travis’ dog, knew exactly who his owner was even though Travis had only had him 2 weeks before the wreck. Sadly, Bruiser died shortly after Travis came home. He had eaten insulation and it lodged in his intestines and there was nothing that could be done to save him. We went on to get Molly Grace, our black lab. She was an amazing dog. We lost her in 2022, she was 12 years old and Travis’ best friend. We now have Ruby Hope, she is a Red Fox lab. A gift from one of our Tik Tok friends in Minnesota.

One day while driving to an appointment Travis asked me if I knew he had died the day of his accident. Once again, I caught my breath. I reached over and pinched his arm. I said no sweetie you are still here with us. He said no, I died. He later went on to continue to talk about his death experience. He spoke about seeing Jesus face-to-face within milliseconds of his dying. He said Jesus walked towards him with rainbows of light surrounding him. My first thought was Travis was seeing the emergency lights coming to help him. But as he went on to describe more and more, I knew it was the essence/beauty of Christ. Jesus hugged Travis and told him how much he loved him. That everything was going to be all right. During that time with Christ, he gave Travis a choice. He asked Travis, do you want to go with me or do you want to stay? He told Travis the condition he would return in. The broken body that he would live with for the rest of his life. The loneliness he would feel. He told Jesus that he couldn’t leave his mom, she would be mad at him if he did. So, he came back. This happened about 8 months after the accident. He went on to describe Jesus and how he looked. An amazing thing is to see the Savior face to face and return. This is also the time he began waking up and speaking more and more.

Life has gone on. It hasn’t always been an easy journey. But it is full of adventures, love, experiences, friends, family, and faith. We have made friends all over the world. Mike began telling Travis’ story on Tik Tok and quickly amassed a network of friends that have become our family. Each one holds a special place in our hearts. They love and protect Travis and always make him feel like he is one of the guys. Which is all he wants, to feel wanted and needed. There is still part of Travis’ story leading up to his accident that not many people know about. One day it will be told, but not yet.

 There is no way you could count the tears I’ve cried and the prayers that I have said nonstop. And still, they continue today. I don’t think I sleep; I fall asleep praying and wake in the morning praying. We continue to be positive and look toward the future that God has placed before us. It’s not easy, but we must trust that He will bring us through this. Even though we don’t understand why things have happened this way, we know it is the way God wants it to be. One thing I do know is that this is a loving, caring, and Godly community. God is using Travis to bring glory to His name through this journey. And each day we wake up is a blessing and we pray this will be the day that God will choose to heal Travis here on earth. But we know that just because it didn’t happen today doesn’t mean it won’t happen tomorrow.

We have tried to be there for the other people who are beginning their journey down this road. To guide them, give them hope and a direction to go. We have been extremely blessed by so many who have helped in Travis' journey through this tragic event. Many prayed, gave money, and watched over and fed our two other children who at the time were still in high school. There was a breakfast benefit put together for us to help with expenses along with a flood of monetary donations. We went on to organize an annual golf scramble that continues today. The golf scramble has grown into such a blessing to us and to several families in the area. We also are 10 years into TBF Day at the Park at Busch Stadium in St Louis with the Cardinal organization. Money is also raised through our sponsorships from individuals and businesses. Sponsorships can also be in honor or in memory of a loved one. We use the money raised to help others in the community. Currently, we have helped around 1421 families who have had a family member experience an accident or illness that takes them from home for an extended period, 22 iPads for individuals with communication issues, and gifted $363,303.79. Also, we have recently broadened our reach with the Travis Burkhart Foundation Midwest branch. Money for this branch comes from outside of the Indiana state lines. All money donated here in Indiana stays in Indiana. We could not have come this far without everyone’s love, support, and prayers.

Currently, Travis is doing very well. He is working hard to regain his balance and coordination. And in time we are hopeful he will succeed. Travis recently told me that he misses driving and being with his friends the most. And we, as a family, will remember everyone who stood by us and gave us unconditional love and support in our time of need. Remember,

Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see”.

God bless each one of you and thank you so much for your love and support.